So last week I made an offhand comment on Twitter about MP Daryl Kramp’s over-reaction to a couple dozen Canadians who were singing and chanting outside his office, in opposition Bill C-51. He actually called the police on them. (Google it if you want.)
You can read the resulting Twitter exchange here:
I wonder if you're allowed to sing in the shower at his house. Or in the house beside his house.
— Tim Snyder (@Tonup_Creative) April 9, 2015
So, kinda dumb, pretty innocuous I think, and Mr. Kramp actually responded with humour, which I thought was kind of cool of him.
@Tonup_Creative actually I enjoyed it as we could "feel the love"
— Daryl Kramp (@darylkramp) April 9, 2015
I fav’d his tweet, and moved on to updates about letting my cat out.
The next day though, I noticed he had unfollowed me, which, well whatever. I swear I’m not hung up on that part. What bothered me was that he had blocked me. Why? Over a dumb joke? Here’s what I see now when I visit his page (more or less).
This really irked me. When I mentioned the blocking on Twitter, several friends replied, voicing surprise, frustration, and other things, like that they wished they could block their mailboxes from all the irl spam they get from his office. Again, not really a big deal. Not until they all started to realize that they too were being blocked by Kramp. He was on a blocking spree. A blocking spree of his constituents who were voicing, in relatively respectful voices, some frustration with his anti-social media savvy.
I honestly don’t know how I feel about C-51, but I do know one thing. I’m tired of our elected officials ignoring us. Twitter is dumb, sure. I grant you that. But this is bigger than a Twitter spat. This is a grown man, our representative in federal parliament playing a game of “I can’t hear you”.
So I focused my cartoon next cartoon on Mr. Kramp.
The cartoon came out today, April 15, in the Wellington Times. Earlier this week though, I threw the cartoon out there to get some early response. I left the caption open, and asked people if they had some thoughts as to what could possibly go there.
These are the results.
If you made it this far, good for you! If you have an idea for a caption, let me know and I’ll do my best to add to the collection. Share the page and share it with Mr. Kramp too. Maybe he’ll finally understand that we don’t like to be ignored.